Observations on politics, news, culture and humor

Craigslist, victim of the demagogues

Craigslist is an amazing resource for transactions between consenting adults. I’ve met my last three roommates through Craigslist. I’ve bought and sold a variety of items. The people I’ve conducted my Craigslist business with have all been decent and fair individuals. Perhaps best of all, I haven’t had to pay a dime to the site for these opportunities.

Yet somehow, this noble, individual-empowering resource for mutually beneficial exchange has become the whipping boy of opportunistic politicians–most notably Dick Blumenthal, the lying sack of scum Attorney General of Connecticut who is running for the retiring Chris Dodd’s Senate seat. Between lying about service in Vietnam and going after the good people at Craigslist, Blumenthal has already proved himself to be on the same base level as Dodd as far as amoral schmuckitude is concerned.

So why did Blumenthal in Connecticut and a squad of Congressional sickies in Washington target Craigslist? For their adult services ads, of course! Because sex between consenting adults is so wrong. Because you don’t have an inviolable right to control your own body, even to the point of selling it. Because allowing sex workers to cut pimps out of their lives and contract directly with customers was a bad thing. Because Craigslist had voluntarily cooperated with law enforcement in the past to charge money for their adult services ads and screen the content made them enemies of public morality.

These guys need to be shown that what they did was wrong. They used governmental force to violate the rights of a law-abiding private company. I am sure they are patting themselves on the back even now as they crank out a new campaign ad touting what they did to Craigslist. And yet the only difference between what they did and what criminal thugs do in the back alleys of America’s cities is that they wear suits and get paid $200k/year to do it. Don’t let them forget it.